ADOPTED BY A PRINCE

“Adopted by a Prince” was first published in the Angel Animals Story of the Week on April 17, 2005. Reprinted with Permission from Angel Animals Network.

ADOPTED BY A PRINCE
By Jo “Sky” Sawyer-Roof

When I was almost five years old and my siblings were in school for the day, my mom drove me to the SPCA to pick up a small puppy or tiny dog. When we got there, I could not stand the barking and yapping. I went straight to the cage of a large German shepherd dog.

The attendant said this dog had been picked up at a schoolyard after being called in because he was frightening the children. He did not bark. He sat across from me. Put his paw up and I touched it. His eyes and mine locked. We belonged together.

My mom dragged me away to look at the puppies. I told her “Mom, I don’t want a puppy. I want Prince”. NO way.

So, we left without any dog. When my siblings came home, they were angry with me. My mom said we would go back the next day to pick up a puppy.

I went back and as soon as our car stopped, and we were at the shelter, I ran to Prince’s cage. He was waiting for me. I would not leave his side. At last, my mother relented.

The attendant got a long-handled wooden pole and led Prince to the car. I sat in the backseat, and that huge shepherd was herded into the back seat with me. My mother was petrified. He put his head in my lap and went to sleep. We rode silently home.

A few months later we moved from the city to the country. My Prince and I went to the woods daily together to explore. He became my best friend.

A few years later my aunt and her family came to live with us. My aunt’s husband was losing his job. Prince became the family’s baby sitter. The children were allowed outdoors only with the dog watching them. He would grab the two-year-old by the seat of his pants and pull him back when he wandered too far. He guarded the baby with his life.

They would put the baby outdoors in her carriage. No one dared go near. One day a sales lady came. My mother heard the dog growling. She came out and told the lady the dog had a working job and not to go near the baby.

My mother invited the woman inside. She listened to her spiel and showed her out when they were done.

All of a sudden my mother heard the lady screaming. She had doubled back, after pretending to leave, and had tried to pick up the baby. This was the only time Prince bit anyone. The woman said she was going to sue us. My mother said if she did not leave the property immediately she would call the police on her for trespassing and for interfering with the dog when she had been told to stay away.

Prince was a working dog and was special. We all loved my Prince.

BIO:
Jo “Sky” Sawyer-Roof has a BFA from the University of Arizona. She lives in Ore Valley Arizona, which means the Valley of Gold because of the gorgeous golden blooms that surround the area; turning it into a golden glow that makes it look like a place out of time. Jo was an assistant editor of the Stochastic Models, Communications in Statistics. She is a contributing author to FEATHERS BRUSH MY HEART, complied by Sinclair Browning (2002) about women who have had contact with their mothers since the mother has left the physical plane.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:

Was there a special “Prince” in your life? A companion animal who will stay in your heart forever.